Chapter 4

Helga sat in her classroom, sighing in relief and pain all at once, being away from Arnold gave her mixed feelings. She took a seat in the front row, knowing that if she started to drift off to thoughts of him, Mrs. Grouch, as Helga called her, would snap her ruler on her desk and make her pay attention.

The door opened and Mrs. Grouch walked in, unlike Mr. Newton, her papers were stacked neatly in between her old boney arms.

"Good morning class." she addressed the class, in her squeaky voice. It made Helga flinch a little to be sitting so close to her, since she usually sat in the back, not paying attention.

"Please go to page 234 in your text books." The sounds of books shuffling, and pages being turned filled the room. Just then a knock came at the door.

Helga looked up, seeing Lila standing there, she was obviously looking right back at Helga. Mrs. Grouchy opened the door.

"Yes? What do you need?" said Mrs. Grouchy obviously mad her class was being interrupted before it could begin.

"I need to see Helga Pataki, please" Lila replied sweetly.

"What for?"

"It is ever so urgent, if I could please talk to her."

Helga hoped that Mrs. Grouchy would shut Lila up, slam the door in her face. Mrs. Grouchy turned to look at Helga, who sent yet another pleading look, not wanting to deal with anything right now. Mrs. Grouchy looked a little surprised, and Helga thought she gave her a little wink.

"Sorry, that is not a reason, unless you have something valid, or a note from a teacher, that would be impossible."

Lila looked shocked, she obviously was getting what she wanted, especially with her sweet tone, adults seemed to melt when they heard it.

"Oh I do not have such a thing, but if you could be ever so kind-" Lila was cut off when Mrs. Grouchy shut the door in Lila's face. Helga could see Lila's face in utter shock as she stood at the door a little longer trying to register what had just happened. Eventually, she slowly turned and walked away, back to her own classroom.

Everyone in the classroom started whispering, gossiping, and wondering why in the world would "Little Miss Lila" wanna talk to "Big Mean Helga".

"Shut up! No whispering!" The class got silent again. "Good…now today we will be learning…."

Helga smiled to herself, and Mrs. Grouchy, no Mrs. Waters…was officially her new favorite teacher, scratch that, new favorite person. Helga paid attention, and she couldn't help but think this would be the best moment of the day, that maybe she could survive today, and all thoughts of Lila and Arnold were not with her at one moment in that class.

However, once the bell rang, and she left the room, the image in front of her, immediately brought it all back. Lila stood there, smiling her stupid little smile.

"Helga! Oh it has been ever so long since we have talked! Wanna come with me to lunch?"

Helga scoffed, "Where is your precious Arnold?"

"He is eating with Gerald today, I thought we could catch up!"

"No thanks." Helga replied, turning away

Lila grabbed her arm, with a lot of force for such a little body.

"Oh it would be ever so sad for me if we couldn't talk!"

Helga brushed her arm off, "What the hell? It would not be 'ever so' sad, what kind of crap are you trying to pull?"

Lila continued to smile, "Oh please Helga!"

Helga knew she should just deck Lila, especially after what happened with her, hell she deserved to be murdered, and maybe now Helga could finally do it, without anyone watching.

"Fine." Helga said, Lila was a little too happy about it, and she wrapped her arm around Helga's and skipped off pulling Helga behind her. They arrived at Lila's locker, before she opened it, she looked around and made sure no one was watching. She flung it open, and then turned and glared at Helga.

"What do you think you are doing?"

"What?" Helga asked seriously confused but she kind of expected this.

"What are you doing, trying to steal Arnold from me?"

Helga scoffed, "Oh yeah, like you did from me?"

Lila now laughed, "Please, you know it yourself, Arnold never cared for you, all you were was a tutor for him, a way to get better grades, he told me himself!"

Helga now felt a pain shoot through her heart. "That's….that's not true!" Helga said trying to defend the good memories from the summer. "He-He cared, but then you came along and ruined everything!" Lila laughed more and more sinisterly.

"Haha, believe what you want." Lila slammed her locker and then leaned in close to Helga's face and whispered, "But he told me that he only used you for your Math skills, and that day you spent together, it was because he felt bad for using you." Helga's eyes grew wide.

"How did you-"

"He told me. And he told me how you were so annoying getting lost then crying like a little baby, he said he lost all respect for you in that moment."

Helga's heart had been shattered before, but now it felt like people were stepping on all the little pieces breaking them down even more. She froze, she couldn't believe it…Arnold? had said that?

Lila smiled, obviously proud of herself, after noticing the pain in Helga's expression. "Stay away Bitch." was what she whispered before leaving Helga. Helga fell into the lockers, she no longer felt strong enough to keep herself up. She slid down the locker, and found herself on her knees leaning on the lockers.

Tears came frantically, and Helga did nothing to stop them, she tried going back to that day, in her mind, trying to figure out if everything actually happened.

Helga had noticed that his hand was still on his, in fact it was so noticeable to her, but she dared not say anything, because if she did he might take it away. He ended up leaving his hand over hers, and while it was a little distracting for her, she smiled throughout their conversations.

"Hey Helga…" Arnold said, obviously about to say something he wasn't sure he would.

"Think real hard if you wanna say what you are about to say Arnoldo" Helga said before he could finish. Arnold nodded, took a moment then obviously decided to go ahead with what he wanted to say.

"Why did you cry when we got seperated?" Arnold looked really interested, and stared at her face for any signs of discomfort. However, Helga just smiled rather solemnly.

"When I was little my parents took me to one of Olga's piano recitals, it was in upper New York. However, when we got to the train station, after her recital, I got separated from them." She paused, her smile fading. "They left me there, they actually forgot about me…I didn't know what to do! I was seven! In a new and big city all alone! They…they forgot me…and left me…" Arnold squeezed her hand tighter, Helga then gave him a forced smile, "Sorry to bring down the mood, where are we heading anyways?" Helga asked trying to change the subject.

Arnold smiled weakly, going along with it, figuring she was done talking about it, though he did wonder how she got home.

"We shouldn't be too far now! you will have to wait and see!"

After about another ten minutes of talking about happier topics, mostly Arnold telling funny stories about his Grandparents. Finally they reached their destination. Arnold tightened his grip on Helga's hand, and ran out the doors, fast as he could.

After running for what seemed like blocks upon blocks, Arnold came to a stop. Helga looked out in front of her, and her eyes got wide with amazement.

On a big sign above the entrance gate read "Cooney Island"

Helga smiled, she had never been to an amusement park, she had never even been on a ride before, and she had asked her parents to take her to Cooney Island so many times before.

"We are going there?" asked Helga excitedly, pulling at Arnold's shirt like a three year old. Arnold chuckled, "Yup, we are going in there." He held her hand directing her through traffic of people as Helga looked around at all the rides.

Once they entered the park Arnold asked, "What do you want to go on first, Helga?"

Helga stared at the giant rollercoaster in front of her, and smiling pointed to it. "That one!"

Arnold looked at her questioningly. "You've never ridden a ride before and you go with the most intense?" Helga nodded. Arnold shrugged and took her onto the ride.

The day went on and Arnold allowed Helga to choose all the rides, he followed wherever she wanted to go, and besides a break for a late meal they were constantly going on rides. This was a time when Arnold was thankful he didn't have motion sickness. Also as Helga was staring at the rides in awe, running around like a three year old, he couldn't help but smile. He knew he was seeing a Helga probably no else has ever seen, not even her parents.

This went on until it got dark, and when the lights turned on, Helga's energy was revamped, and she was ready to go. When it reached about 9 p.m. Arnold decided they should get going, since the park was going to close soon.

"Hey Helga…I think we should go…it is getting late and the park is closing soon" Helga turned around and smiled, "Ok, but can we go on one more ride please? I saved the best for last!" Arnold smiled, "Alright, one more, which one do you want to go on?" Helga grabbed Arnold's hand and led him to the middle of the park, when she came to a stop and pointed at the ride Arnold was confused.

"That?" Arnold asked. Helga nodded.

"I want to ride the tea cups!" Helga said happily. Arnold looked down at her, shurgged and smiled. "Alright! tea cups it is!"

They stood in line, and Arnold felt out of place surrounded by kids much smaller than them, but when he looked at Helga she was bouncing up and down from excitement. When it was their turn they chose a pink tea cup with fancy flower design on it.

Before the ride even started Helga was turning the wheel, causing the tea cup to spin. Arnold immediately started to help her. Helga was laughing and having a great time, and Arnold couldn't help but have a great time too. Finally, when the ride started they laughed even harder, and were spinning the wheel with all their might.

Suddenly, Helga let go, and told Arnold to do the same, the wheel still turning because they had done it so ferociously before. Helga giggled and smiled at Arnold who smiled back, as Helga looked at him, blur of the rest of the fair behind him, she knew she was "home" in a sense, a place she could be herself.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY HELGA!" Arnold shouted over the noise.

Helga's heart jumped, her face turned bright red. She had forgotten it was her own birthday, and to no surprise, no one in her family had wished her such that morning.

Arnold looked up to see Helga with a waterfall of tears falling from her face. Arnold panicked.

"I'm so sorry Helg-" but she raised a hand to stop him, and he could now see that she was indeed crying but she had a huge smile on her face.

"Thank you" she mouthed.

Arnold smiled, and then as the ride started to come to an end, and the tea cup was slowly becoming steady. Arnold lifted himself from his seat, leaned over the wheel of the tea cup, and kissed Helga, it was a relatively short kiss on the lips, but there was so much contained in that one little kiss.

Helga's eyes grew wide, wider than they had been all day, and when they parted she stared at him, confused and so happy.

She couldn't speak, she didn't know what to say, so she merely lifted her hand and touched it to her lips, and smiled. She looked across at Arnold who was now staring at her as he had earlier at the Burger Joint, and now Helga knew why.

Arnold was in love with her, or at least he liked her a lot.

When the ride stopped Arnold helped Helga out of the teacup and instead of just grabbing her hand, he intertwined their fingers. Helga looked up at him and smiled, and they exited the ride and the park, holding hands, and smiling.

Neither said a word, not even when they got onto the train, they just sat there and would occasionally look at one another, and unbeknownst to everyone else on the train, they had a very meaningful conversation. Helga ended up dozing off, she had used too much energy, and was now crashing. she laid her head on Arnold's shoulder, and fell asleep. Arnold looked down at her, and was amazed at how peaceful she looked while sleeping, and he knew, in that moment, she was the real Helga G. Pataki. Peaceful, caring, and vulnerable, the Helga he knew, who only he knew. He smiled knowing that this Helga, the one resting on his shoulder, was his Helga, and only his.

Helga now was curled up in a fetal position, her back against the lockers, her head hidden in her knees, which were wrapped in her arms. She cried hard, she couldn't imagine that any of that could have been fake, but then again Arnold was that nice. He would take a girl out for her birthday, and just to make her day, give her a little kiss. It probably didn't mean anything, Helga was now twisting everything in her mind, letting Lila's words have an effect on her. All those moments which she had held so dear were becoming daggers in her heart.

Helga looked up, her cheeks soaked, and eyes puffy red, at the clock that hung in the hall. 12:15, Lunch would be over soon, and the halls would fill with people, none of which she wanted to see, not even Phoebe.

Helga stood herself up, grabbed a few books she thought she might need, and walked out of the school. However, she didn't head home, she just walked, her thoughts wandering to different places, asking herself different questions.